Wednesday, 6 October 2010

Sleep

When I told Babes (my boss) that T hasn't slept a full night in 5 years, she said that was un-f**ing believable and that something had to be done about it. Babes, by the way, always refers to bad news as being un-f**ing believable. Anyway, she recommended we take T to her Chinese doctor. So, after much bribing, coaxing and eventually just ordering, I managed to get T to leave the office at 7 and join us at the Chinese apothecary.

The shop was piled high with glass jars full of gnarled up pieces of what looked like dried body parts and plants. And in the corner was someone who looked like the accountant - blue shirt, neat hand writing and a notepad. The doctor.

So Babes positions T in front of the doc and launches into a full blown description of T's medical history (in Cantonese). Might I mention that this is the first time the two of them (Babes and T) have met. So, her knowledge of T's medical history is pretty shaky, to say the least. Within minutes she has his jacket off and the doctor poking and prodding him while the two of them humm and haa. All this in the midst of busy shoppers queuing up for potions, buying tea and generally pretending to be busy.

The doctor then gives us his meticulously scribed Chinese notes and Babes directs me to the potion counter to get T's sleep elixir while T is shuffled to a corner where, from a distance, it looks like he's launched into a wrestling match... 4 elbow jabs in the thighs and 10 toe pulls in the wrong direction (think wish bones) later and T emerges looking dazed and a little off balance. This was meant to "relax" ..seemed to have done the trick. That night, he downed the foul smelling concoction and went to bed to wait.